Catalyst Game Labs

First let me say, I do plan to get back to writing here soon but work has been beyond insane lately and I simply have not had the time to game enough (at least for my taste) much less write about gaming.

However, I did want to say that for those interested in the game, Eclipse Phase can now be purchased in PDF format!

Last weekend I went with Josh and a couple long-time friends to Columbus, OH for this year’s Origins gaming convention. It was the first big convention for most of us, and I snapped a few pictures to commemorate the event as well as bringing back some thoughts and observations that might be of interest to anyone who considered going but didn’t make it (and possibly to those who did make it as well).

This isn’t exactly news at this point (it was posted a week ago) but I thought I should direct your attention to it anyway. One week ago Catalyst Game Labs announced that it has made an offer to The Topps Company to purchase “various WizKids’ properties, including such dynamic game lines as HeroClix, the Pirates Pocket Model Game, BattleTech/MechWarrior, and Shadowrun“.

A few weeks ago my Shadowrun group had a short discussion about the usefulness of Logic for a Hacker. For those unfamilier with the system, Hackers (once called Deckers) are basically what they sound like: computer geeks who break the law for a profit. It came up that most hacking-related rolls in the game involve adding your skill plus program rather than using your Logic stat and after a closer look it generally appeared that Logic was almost useless for a Hacker to have at all since most everything was based on a composite of skill + program with your actual brain power hardly fitting in at all.

Heading over to the Shadowrun site to try and figure out why my pulped tree version of the Runner’s Companion wasn’t in yet I discovered Catalyst’s newest product with an apparent street date of October 14th: Cthulhutech.

I’ve mentioned before that I have trouble with locations in my role playing games. I’ve never been good at picturing things three dimensionally and when it comes to buildings I have trouble picturing room layouts (both where the rooms should be within the structure and what should be where in the rooms).

As I have mentionedseveraltimes I am a huge fan of Shadowrun. I love almost everything about the game from its living world with new and interesting events happening all the time to its concise and well thought out rules. Shadowrun, for me, offers the perfect mix of action and role playing and really opens itself up to all kinds of gamers.

Recently I purchased the Runner’s Companion combo pack which gets you the pdf version of the book and the hard bound version when they release it. Most likely I would have waited for the hard bound version if my next game were not starting soon but as it is starting soon I wanted the new options available for my players. I also figured that it gave me the opportunity to write a brief review of the book in a somewhat timely fashion.

I’m really not a fan of RPG.net these days. They seem to always come down very harshly on the games that I like best and often their “reviews” are little more than sarcastic rants. Still, I do pop over their from time to time and check out what is being said.